packed in a buggy, were driven for four or
five miles, over the roughest road I ever traveled, to the farm of Mr.
B., H.'s uncle, where we arrived at midnight and hastened to hide in bed
the utter exhaustion of mind and body. Yesterday we were too tired to
think, or to do anything but eat peaches.

XI

WILD TIMES IN MISSISSIPPI

This morning there was a most painful scene. Annie's father came into
Vicksburg, ten miles from here, and learned of our arrival from Mrs.
C.'s messenger. He sent out a carriage to bring Annie and Max to town
that they might go home with him, and with it came a letter for me from
friends on the Jackson Railroad, written many weeks before. They had
heard that our village home was under water, and invited us to visit
them. The letter had been sent to Annie's people to forward, and thus
had reached us. This decided H., as the place was near New Orleans, to
go there and wait the chance of getting into that city. Max, when he
heard this from H., lost all self-control and cried like a baby. He
stalked about the garden in the most tragic manner, exclaiming:

"Oh! my soul's brother from youth up is a traitor! A traitor to his
country!"

Then H. got angry and said, "Max, don't be a fool."

"Who has done this?" bawled Max. "You felt with the South at first; who
has changed you?"

"Of course I feel _for_ the South now, and nobody has changed me but the
logic of events, though the twenty-negro law has intensified my
opinions. I can't see why I, who have no slaves, must go to fight for
them, while every man who has twenty may stay at home."

I also tried to reason with Max and pour oil on his wound. "Max, what
interest has a man like you, without slaves, in a war for slavery? Even
if you had them, they would not be your best property. That lies in your
country and its resources. Nearly all the world has given up slavery;
why can't the South do the same and end the struggle. It has shown you
what the South needs, and if all went to work with united hands the
South would soon be the greatest country on earth. You have no right to
call H. a traitor; it is we who are the true patriots and lovers of the
South."

This had to come, but it has upset us both. H. is deeply attached to
Max, and I can't bear to see a cloud between them. Max, with Annie and
Reeney, drove off an hour ago, Annie so glad at the prospect of again
seeing her mother that nothing could cloud her day. And so the close
compan